Bonaventure Cemetery

The haunting statues and Spanish moss-laden live oaks make this cemetery among the most somberly romantic in the world.

By The Taphotourist

Savannah is so beautiful that the dead never truly depart.

―James Caskey

Famous for its role in the novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Bonaventure Cemetery has long been a tourist destination thanks to the moody Spanish moss-adorned trees that line the walking paths. These mature southern live oaks were planted every fifteen or so feet along both sides of the main corridors in 1764.

Naturalist and environmental philosopher John Muir spent six nights in this cemetery and dedicated a chapter to the experience in his book Thousand Mile Walk: “Bonaventure is called a graveyard, a town of the dead, but the few graves are powerless in such a depth of life. The rippling of living waters, the song of birds, the joyous confidence of flowers, the calm, undisturbable grandeur of the oaks, mark this place of graves as one of the Lord's most favored abodes of life and light.”

Bonaventure is Savannah’s largest cemetery, covering over 100 acres. The once-private cemetery was built on the Bonaventure Plantation along the Wilmington River. It became public in 1907, with plots available to this day – though as of early 2019, only 3 multi-grave plots are available. Wedding ceremonies inside Bonaventure are on the rise and it is common to picnic here.